​When I scroll down the news section on my iPhone, I see some news post about the importance of personal finance education. However, society still needs to be reminded the importance of personal finance in schools. What should be discussed is how to correctly apply personal finance education based on the student body being served. Before using personal finance curriculum, educators should ask, “Who is my student body? What do they already know? What topics are of interest?” Would you let your doctor diagnose you with medicine without asking you questions? So why do we let educators teach personal finance to students without doing an analysis and ask questions before applying a personal finance curriculum?

Know the differenceNo school district is identical, and each has different study bodies with different needs. For example, there are school districts where a majority of students are on free or reduced lunch and others were the median family income is in the six figures. So how does an educator teach personal finance when one student body barely has enough to eat and the other has plenty of choices of what to eat?

What is needed is designing a curriculum based on the student body. If your student body lives in an environment where renting an apartment and pre-paid debit cards are the norm it does not make sense to teach students about the foreign stock exchange? I am not saying you shouldn’t look at a later date but know your student body and what they are going through in life.

Ask before applyingWhen I was teaching personal finance to 8th graders, a decent amount was from low-income households that cared more about knowing the difference between gross income and net income than the stock exchange. I also recall a time when a member of the community volunteered to teach a personal finance topic to an inner city school and mentioned her difficult experience.

The individual did not go further into details, but after looking at the curriculum, learning about the student body, and listening about her experience I could see why there was difficult experience. There was no connection between the curriculum, the student body, and the volunteer.

To best serve students do your homework and select personal finance curriculum based on their needs, learn about their backgrounds, and ask questions.

Mr. J

When I was building my start-up, I was also working a full-time job and getting out of credit card debt. It was not easy balancing all of this. When I focused on my start-up, I lost focus on my full-time job—and vice-versa. I knew that one day I would fully commit to my start-up, but I wanted to be respectful to my full-time job until then.

Mr. J

​ I walk into a coffee shop and I see a sign marketing a $10 lunch special. I thought to myself, “$10? Really? Just a few more dollars and I have a dinner.”

The $10 lunch special includes with your choice of salad or sandwich, one piece of fruit, and one bottle of water.

You are more than welcome to purchase your $10 lunch special but let’s put it into perspective. If you spend $10 on the lunch special at least three times a week for the entire year you are spending $1,440 (not including taxes) and this is not including your morning coffee.

With $1,440 you can open a Roth IRA or IRA account or pay off your student loans.

Think twice before purchasing your $10 lunch special because being financially savvy starts with a financial attitude of not spending on useless expenses.

Mr. J

“And I will always love you…” the famous song from Whitney Houston’s Bodyguard soundtrack was the song I thought of when relating credit and love. When you love someone you do things out of the ordinary. The same goes for credit. You should love your credit, care for your credit, and go the extra mile to care for your credit.

Not giving attention to your credit can hurt you in the long run especially when seeking a job in the financial sector, obtaining a mortgage, or applying for a new credit card. Let’s explore how credit and love are the related.

Don’t commit if you’re not readyProtecting your credit is like defending your love one, you can tell people you have a good credit score but do not let them mess it up. A family member once asked me to co-sign with them on a mortgage loan for a house, and I said no. I love my family, but I knew that I would have to be responsible for the loan and I was not ready to commit to the loan. If you do not feel comfortable taking on the responsibility then do not be a co-signer.

Check up Credit card companies are now offering FICO scores updated on a monthly basis. Every time you make a monthly payment check your credit score for changes, good or bad. Don’t forget to do your yearly credit check to monitor what is on your credit. Checking up on your love one is important just like your credit. You may not have the time to get daily updates on your credit, but monthly and yearly check-ups are necessary.

Analyze but don’t obsessWhen checking your credit read what loans you have in your name and what credit cards are open in your name. If anything is out of the ordinary get it fixed. Examine the details but don’t very overly obsess because you may overthink on details that are not important. For example, having several credit cards open is not a bad thing; it helps your credit history. But do not max out all of our cards and do not have numerous credit cards that require yearly membership payment.

Just like in love you want to make sure your relationship is going in the right direction, but you do not want to overthink every detail, you may look obsessive.

Credit and love have similar methods but different goals. Before committing make sure you're ready, check up and analyze your credit.